Life is interconnected and so are the topics on this blog. It might be cooking and gardening one day, yoga the next, knitting and sewing, or hiking and then bird watching followed by recycling or composting. They are the parts that bring humble joy to my life of voluntary simplicity in Montana.

Tuesday, April 16, 2019

My Five A Day Book Habit

I took Thursday off from work last week so that I could pick Ginger up from the doctor and pamper her all day long. I figured we’d have to spend a lot of time cuddling--she could sit on my lap and I would do some reading. Really, this is an ideal day off for me.

Matt was kind of razzing me about my book reading obsession, as he does from time to time. He likes reading, but averages a much more normal 4-7 books per year to my 100+ books annually. I was trying to defend myself, saying I wasn't that reading crazy...when I had to stop all protestation and just laugh. There is no denying it. I am obsessed. The proof was at my feet in the bag I carry every day.

My daily carry last week was no less than five books.

Two of them I was technically finished reading, I argued. I still needed to have them handy though. I hadn't had my Little House book chat with Hannah about By the Shores of Silver Lake and I was still drafting my review of Number the Stars for my Newbery challenge. ...as if these things made it perfectly reasonable to carry five books at a time. Matt countered that these pending "book reports" might only strengthen the Beth-is-An-Obsessive-Reader argument.

It was funny. Oh, we laughed. He's got me. I don't even know why I bother trying to suggest otherwise. I probably wouldn't even need to carry a bag if it weren't for the books in it.

Currently I am reading The Long Winter, The Little Book of Lykke, and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. I've been carrying around By The Shores of Silver Lake and Shiloh though for the exact same reasons listed above. Harry Potter is on audiobook, but I've got Missing May in my bag as I expect to start that any day now. So, five books. Again. It is like a running joke.

10 comments:

People who have that many books on the go are INTERESTING!!! My kind of people. I'm re-reading Mrs. Miniver right now as well as Happiness at Home by Gretchen Rubin, reading The Giver to my big kids, and just finished Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt. He was a new author to me and WOW - best book I've read in a long time. Highly recommend.

I appreciate that assessment--about books on the go leading to being interesting. I have pondered that one. I am so curious and love learning so much, but wonder sometimes if peopel grow weary of my and my "I read once..." or "In the book I am reading..."

Oooh, thanks for the suggestion on Okay for Now. His name is new to me. I just downloaded a different G. Rubin book for my ipod (Better than Before). I am just about to start The Giver for my Newbery project. I am quite excited about that one as it made quite an impression on me in my youth.

Wait wait - 4-7 books/year is more normal? say it isn't so. while i certainly don't come close to your 100, I read more than 4-7 per year. I have enough other pieces that aren't "normal" and didn't need another one :)

According to recent Pew reports the average for an American is 12--balanced out by nuts like me and the full 25% of American adults that didn't read a book at all last year. So take your normal tag as you will. :)

12 is the average for an American adult. I know you're not American, but that is just a factoid tucked into my brain. But, really, any reading is good--four or seven or seventy! Matt is a devoted reader of Mother Earth News, Backpacker magazine, and National Geographic even if he doesn't share my book obsession. Learning and reading are always good I think, regardless of format.

I would say that 4 to 7 books per year is not normal! (sorry, Matt!). I'm usually reading a few; it's impossible not to. You pick up a book, say - it's non-fiction and serious but you really want to read it. The next day you have some time to read but guess what? you're tired and need something more suited for a tired mind, so you pick up some fiction. So, you go back and forth between the two. But you also feel that you need to fill in your ongoing education by reading children's books and classics you missed when younger, so you pick up one of those. Now you've got three. That's a minimum situation, and you know just what I'm saying. Not to mention that if you work in a library, there are So Many books there that catch your eye. It's an impossible situation. :)

Oh, Lisa. I love you. "I'm usually reading a few; it's impossible not to." You are speaking my language. I certainly can't help myself. Sometimes I need an audiobook, I love learning through non-fiction, but I love having book clubs with Hannah with fiction.

I guess I really intended to say that Matt's reading is more normal than mine. The Pew reports say the average is actually 12 books per year for American adults last year, though a full quarter don't read any at all. People like you and I must surely skew the stats to balance out those non-readers and land at that average of 12. And I am lucky (and I bet you are too) to hang with/work with a crowd that also helps skew that average.